Brussels, 15 December 2018

ECSWE stance supported by European Parliament resolution

The European Parliament’s resolution on education in the digital era calls for unbiased research into the effects of digital technology on brain development.

On 11th Decem­ber 2018, the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment adopt­ed its res­o­lu­tion on edu­ca­tion in the dig­i­tal era. The report gives pol­i­cy rec­om­men­da­tions on how to adapt edu­ca­tion sys­tems to the chal­lenges of dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion. ECSWE lob­bied for a more bal­anced view on the use of dig­i­tal tech­nol­o­gy in schools, age-appro­pri­ate and devel­op­ment-ori­ent­ed media edu­ca­tion, and invest­ment into research on the effect of dig­i­tal tech­nol­o­gy on young children’s brain devel­op­ment.

Our work con­tributed to achiev­ing a more bal­anced doc­u­ment that includes the fol­low­ing key demands:

A strong call for “invest­ment in unbi­ased and inter­dis­ci­pli­nary research into the var­i­ous impacts of dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies on edu­ca­tion”, “so as to achieve as deep an under­stand­ing as pos­si­ble of how the minds of chil­dren and adults are respond­ing to the dig­i­tal envi­ron­ment”;

The demand that teacher train­ing in the field of media edu­ca­tion “must include mod­ules on age- and devel­op­ment-ori­ent­ed teach­ing prac­tices” prepar­ing teach­ers for a sus­tain­able approach ori­ent­ed towards the well­be­ing of the learn­er;

The request to author­i­ties to coop­er­ate with edu­ca­tion set­tings to “devel­op their ICT and media edu­ca­tion in accor­dance with their ped­a­gog­i­cal approach” thus giv­ing schools more auton­o­my in defin­ing their own media cur­ric­u­la.